It is interesting, though, to look at how societies like those of the Maya or on Easter Island have collapsed in on themselves. Wikipedia doesn't entirely agree that it was exceeding the land's carrying capacity that ended the Mayans - apparently there are "88 different theories or variations of theories attempting to explain the Classic Maya Collapse have been identified. From climate change to deforestation to lack of action by Mayan kings, there is no universally accepted collapse theory, although drought is gaining momentum as the leading explanation." Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Maya_collapse
As for the ids, the economic version already exists: I can not read a certain subset of academic research in my field as it is behind paywalls in ACM, IEEE, etc.
I can understand the debate behind what caused the collapse on Easter Island, but it is odd/sad/ironic that we will probably debate what will lead to our collapse right up to the very moment of it.